Measures Cheat Sheet
PSC-17 Measures caregiver perception of the overall level of problems and the level of attention problems, internalizing problems (e.g., sadness, anxiety) and externalizing problems (e.g., behavior problems).
General Feedback: “This checklist measures your views on your child and his/her level of problems compared to other children. The total score measures overall problems. It is made up of three scales that measure problems with attention, like difficulty concentrating, fidgeting, not getting tasks done, problems like sadness and anxiety or worries and behavior problems, like disobedience, defiance, fighting. A score in the clinical range, a score over 15, means your child has significantly more problems than other children and probably could benefit by treatment.”
Total Score-Non-clinical: “Good news, your child does not score in the clinical range, or over 15. This means his/her general problem level is in the normal range. All children have ups and downs; good days and bad days, but that does not mean they have serious problems that require treatment. I am happy to give you some tips to handle the normal ups and down if you would like.”
Total Score-Clinical: “Your child’s total score is over 15 which is in the clinical range.Thisscore tells me that your child is really having trouble. I am glad you brought him/her in to see what kind of help would be best. I can tell you are concerned about him/her. Let’s review the results to see in what areas he/she is having difficulty tofigure out what kind of help would be best. We have treatments that work so this is a good first step”.
Attention- Non-clinical: “Good news. Your child’s score on this scale is in the normal range. Does that fit for you?”
Attention- Clinical: “Your child’s score on the attention scale is over 7 which is in the clinical range. This means you notice that your child has significantly more problems paying attention and following through compared to other children. It may mean that he/she has ADHD. Have you heard about ADHD? This is a pretty common condition in children; about 5-7% of kids has it. It is very important to confirm whether that is the right diagnosis so that we can give the right treatment. Medication is the main treatment, but sometimes children also need some help in learning to manage their behavior better. We can help parents or teachers learn how to help the children. Would be willing to complete another checklist that is just for ADHD and have his/her teacher fill it out as well?”
Internalizing- Non-Clinical: “Good news. Your child’s score on this scale is in the normal range. Does that fit for you? You are not concerned that your child has too much anxiety, sadness, withdrawal or worries?”
Internalizing- Clinical: “You child’s score on the internalizing scale is over 5 which is in the clinical range. This means that your child has significantly more anxiety and worry, and/or depression and withdrawal than other children. Your child is likely feeling really bad on the inside and these feelings are getting in the way of everyday life. The good news is that we have effective treatments. Would you be interested to hear more about them?”
Externalizing- Non-Clinical: “Good news. Your child’s score on this scale is in the normal range. That means your answers say that you don’t see your child as having serious problems with behavior. Does that fit for you?”
Externalizing- Clinical: “Your child’s score on the externalizing scale is over 7 which is in the clinical range. This means he/she has significantly more problems with defiance, disobedience, aggression and misbehavior than other children. These types of problems are very frustrating and can make family life unpleasant. Usually it turns out that they are bad habits that children have gotten into to get attention or get their way. The good news is we have effective treatments that can really improve the behaviors. The treatments that work will need you to be part of the plan because right now your child has too much control in a negative way. Would you like to hear more about treatment?”
SCAREDMeasures child reported anxiety and posttraumatic stress (mainly symptoms of intrusion, like being upset my memories or intrusive thoughts).
General anxiety: “This checklist measures anxiety. Anxiety is being too scared or worrying too much when you don’t need to. The score tells whether you have too much anxiety and could benefit from some help or whether you have normal worries like all children have. If your score is over 3, that means you may be having too many feelings of anxiety, and you would benefit fromlearning some skills to help you worry less and feel better.”
Posttraumatic Stress (PTS): “This checklist measures posttraumatic stress or PTS. PTS is upsetting memories or reminders of a bad or scary thing that happened in the past. Your score tells whether you have too much stress when you remember or you have just the normal amount that goes with having bad experiences. If your score is over 6 it means you are having too much and you would benefit from learning some skills to help you feel better.”
MOODS AND FEELINGS QUESTIONNAIRE.Measureschild reported depression.
“This checklist measures depression. Depression is feeling sad, down, or like nothing is going well or you can’t do anything right. Everyone has ups and downs and bad days. But having depression means the feelings are really strong and keep going on. If your score is over 11 it means you are having too much sadness and depressed feelings. We will work on some skills to help you feel better.”
FEEDBACK DURING TREATMENT.Continue assessment of progress/change during treatment:
“If you decide to get into treatment, I will ask you to fill out a checklist every once in a while to see whether the treatment is working. Hopefully the scores will go down and your child (you) will have feelings and behaviors that are more in line with other children, which will tell me the treatment is working. If not, we will figure out how to fix the treatment plan so that you do start to feel better and more like other children.
WA State CBT Plus Measures Cheat SheetPage 1